The Official Site of Derrick Rose

Thu, Apr 23rd 2009, 09:22

Derrick Rose named Rookie of the Year

After weeks of speculation and discussion, Derrick Rose was officially named the winner of the NBA’s Eddie Gottlieb Trophy as the 2008-09 T-Mobile Rookie of the Year. Derrick recieved the award at a press conference at a North Shore hotel yesterday and will also be presented with it again in front of his home fans before tonight’s Game 3 of the first-round series with the Boston Celtics.

Derrick Rose received 111 of the 120 first place votes cast in a poll of writers and broadcasters and was in the top 3 on the other 9 ballots. Rose gathered a total of 574 points in voting, beating out OJ Mayo and Brook Lopez who garnered 246 and 127 votes respectively.

‘‘When I first came into the season, my big thing was to get this award,’‘ he said. ‘‘I told you all that I didn’t care, but when you’re coming in, you really do want this award. It shows how much work you put into [the season]. There’s a lot of talent out there.’‘

‘‘When you’re the No. 1 pick, there’s a lot of pressure on you, especially when you’re playing in your hometown and everybody’s looking at you,’‘ he said.

The rest of the Bulls organization agreed with the voters that Derrick was a deserving recipient of the award.

“I think it was a no-brainer,” said Bulls GM John Paxson. “He’s one of the finest young men I’ve been around. He’s humble and he goes about his business the way you should. He represents the Bulls organization in a way that I couldn’t be more proud of.”

Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro has been campaigning for Derrick to win the award for months.

“I said back in January that he was rookie of the year just based on what type of person he was,” Del Negro said. “I’m most pleased with Derrick Rose the person because I know the basketball stuff will come.”

In typical Derrick Rose fashion, when asked what he would do with the award, the answer came easily to him.

“My mom’s going to get the award right now,” he said. “I think she deserves it.”